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Originally Posted by Formendacil
Actually, Tolkien did almost ALL of his writing after the First World War. The Hobbit was written in the 30s, and the Lord of the Rings was written in late 30s and during the 40s. Although the war certainly influenced Tolkien's understanding of what war does, and this shows in the LR, I don't think that Tolkien's war experiences actually had anything to do with The Hobbit, and its differences from the LR. The timing isn't right.
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Certainly his writings pre-war were more 'romantic', & the mythology as such found
some its form & philosophical underpinnings as a result of his experiences in the trenches & through the loss of his friends.
I would, however, speculate that only someone who had been through the brutal realities of modern warfare, could have written the account of the Battle of Five Armies as it appears in The Hobbit, with all the cynicism, greed & backbiting involved in its cause & the fact that the 'good guys' only join together when a worse enemy appears. If the Goblins & Wargs hadn't turned up our 'heroes' would probably have slaughtered each other & if the Dwarves had won they would probably have hanged Bilbo as a 'traitor'.